BC thanks Captain Yamano and makes his way off The Eisenhower and back onto Lunar Prime through the makeshift airlock.
I can breathe, guess that means it works.
This is not the way I saw myself getting back here. I figured little trip to deposit Fiza, then right back in time for Christmas, no worries. How wrong can a man be?
Lunar Prime's spaceport is in chaos. Armed UTZ guards move in patrols throughout the confused crowd. LSCs are doing their best to move among the people, comforting them, telling them where they can go to get help.
Most of those wandering through the spaceport seem a little dazed, still in shock from the terrible, shattering force of the attacks.
BC spots Governor Edwards in the crowd, doing his best to help the cause. He makes his way up to Edwards, finds him staring off into space while a UTZ officer reports. It takes over a minute for Edwards to turn, see BC, and register whom it is standing there. Then his eyes snap alert and brighten.
"BC!" Edwards says, surprised and smiling. Then his smile drops, his eyes darken and dim with sadness.
BC tries for comfort.
"Marc, I can't believe this, that they'd do this."
"I guess I know better what you've been talking about now, huh?" Edwards shakes his head. "Why? Why did they... they never hit us like this before. We're not on their side, but we're not their enemy. Why us?"
"I don't know, Marc. I just don't know. Why kill anybody this way? Deep and ancient hatreds. It is Christmas, you know."
"I know. They'll never forget that. I don't think they should. But that wasn't even us! Not the Lunar Free State! We didn't kill them. Why us? Why today?"
"Maybe it was us. The Vatican, I mean. Our fault. I saw the crater where the mission used to be."
Marc Edwards lowers his head, then looks back up, eye to eye with BC. He clears his throat and prepares to pass along grim news.
"The Cardinal is dead, BC. I helped identify him after the first wave of attacks. I'm sorry. The Reverend Swan is still missing, but presumed dead. The Vatican Mission was hit first, and hard."
"Was it a nuke?"
"No. I think they were flinging captured asteroids at us at first."
Damn, that's hardcore.
Oh, man, not now!
A headache comes on and overwhelms BC where he stands. Pain shoots through his skull. He closes his eyes, squeezes the bridge of his nose between his thumb and right pointer.
A bad one! Gotta be the crazy stress.
"You okay, BC?" Edwards asks, concerned.
"Yeah, I think, it's just a lot, getting one of those headaches again." BC says, and looks around for somewhere to sit. Quickly.
"Here, man, sit down. Sit down," Edwards says, helping him to a chair and clearing off debris so BC can plop down.
BC sits, head in his hands, as the headache grows. He rubs his temples but it doesn't help.
So much pain this time! Shit! What sort of permanent damage did those cult drugs do to my brain? This is their revenge for my letting them down.
"BC?" Edwards is leaning over him, worried.
"I'll be okay, just give me a sec."
I hope I'll be okay. They tell me again and again there are no tumors or growths but then what aw fuck what ouch ow!
"Have you heard about the Earth attacks?" Edwards asks him.
BC tries to concentrate, lowers his right hand from his head and opens his right eye to look at Edwards. "Not in any detail. Have you heard any reports?"
"It was bad, BC. They may still be attacking. I haven't heard any recent updates. We were lucky to get the small defense group we did from the UTZ when we requested it. Most of the UTZ fleet was defending Earth."
"What have you heard?"
"They threw everything they had at us. And they had more than anybody knew. They've been majorly stockpiling on Mars. They did major damage to Sydney, London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Lima, and Vatican City." Edwards pauses as something else occurs to him.
He leans in a little closer. "Pope Peter is dead, BC. It happened before the attacks. We got the news right after you left with that woman Fiza. His death was confirmed this morning. I'm sorry."
I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...
The words echo in his brain. BC's head feels like it's about to explode, as if his brain is expanding, trying to break out of the confines of his skull. He closes his eye. The pain is intense.
I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...
The words keep echoing in BC's head.
Then the floor falls away.
BC keeps falling, falling, dropping faster, free falling.
Everything is gone. The world falls away.
BC opens his eyes. The world around him contracts down into a small marble that shrinks into a pinpoint of light and then -pop- disappears.
Everyone is dead. The Cardinal. Swan. Who knows who else. M'Bekke? Marino?
BC doesn't realize he's passed out until he comes to lying on his back on a couch.
In Edward's office. Still here, still intact.
Edwards is sitting behind a desk across the room from BC and notices him stirring. He smiles and gets up to come over.
"BC! You're back!"
"Where did I go?"
"You tell me! You went... I don't know. Catatonic or something."
BC sits up and rubs his temples. The headache has passed.
I still feel like I'm hungover. I should have more fun if I'm going to end up suffering like this. How long has it been?
"How long was I out for?"
"It's been almost a day! You were staring straight ahead, but you weren't seeing anything. You wouldn't respond to anything. I had them bring you here so you weren't left sitting staring into space in the middle of the spaceport. Not that you were the only one shell shocked."
"Thanks, Marc," BC says in a mumble.
Still groggy.
"How's your head?" Edwards asks, sitting down in a nearby chair.
"S'okay," BC laughs, "least of my worries.
"Everyone I know and work with, and for, is dead. Where I lived and worked is gone. And I'm still here, somehow."
"So am I, man. So am I. Hey, Doctor O'Neel says it may have overwhelmed you, everything hitting you at once, mental overload or something. Brought on your headache. Sounded like a good explanation to me."
"I suppose."
I gotta see another neurologist or someone about these headaches. That last was a doozy.
"They announced a new pope while you were out of it!" Edwards says, trying to cheer up BC.
"Wha?"
"Pope Linus!" Edwards tells him. "They broadcast it about two hours ago."
"Really? Who is he?"
"I told you, Linus. Are you sure you're okay?" Edwards sounds concerned.
"No, no, man, that's not what I mean." BC shakes his head, chuckles. "Popes take on a saint's name when they become pope. 'Linus' isn't his real name. So I wonder who he is."
"Oh, I get it," Edwards says, nodding. He gets up, walks back over to his desk and sits down.
BC's feeling better, so he stands up.
No dizziness, good. Legs feel solid. Not jelly.
"Do you have a report, something I can read, look at?" BC asks.
Edwards stands up, motions for BC to come over.
"The story's still on my screen. Go ahead, take a look." He steps back and lets BC sit down to read the news.
Linus the Second was elevated to the Papacy after the convening of an emergency meeting of the College of Cardinals, made pope on Christmas day.
He was pope before I even knew Peter was dead. And Giusseppe Fioreni is now Linus the Second.
Who the fuck is Giusseppe Fioreni?
Where's the bio link? Oh there.
Fioreni was a leader in the old Roman Catholic Church until the time of the Great Reunification. He was a lead member of the Vatican team in the ecumenical councils that led to the reunification.
Sounds old school Catholic. Wonderful.
/>
BC keeps reading. Fioreni was evidently a surprise choice, and from the sounds of the article one of only a couple of candidates to come forward. Massive losses were suffered on Christmas Eve when the UIN attacked Vatican City unannounced, thinning the ranks of those who would be pope. The College of Cardinals is now much smaller, evidently, having been gathered at the Vatican for the Papal vote when the attacks commenced.
"Linus the Second, huh?" BC mumbles.
"What was that?" Edwards asks from behind him.
"Nothing. Just trying to get used to the idea of a new boss."
"So, do you know this new guy?" Edwards asks.
"Not at all. Never met the man. He and I didn't run in the same circles. I'm sure he'll be fine, though, if the cardinals chose him that quickly."
"Gotta pick up the pieces and move on," Edwards muses.
"Yeah, but the church never moves that fast. It's funny. Funny peculiar, not funny ha ha. Especially where Pope Peter died before the attacks."
"Yeah, that part was never made too clear," Edwards agrees. He walks around the desk, paces across the room.
BC changes the subject. "Hey, I noticed something."
"What's that?" Edwards turns and paces back.
"You're still in charge here. There are no UIN soldiers herding us into containment areas. Did we win?"
"If you can call this winning. They threw everything they had at us, and we held them back. We took a beating, we're hurt, and a lot of people are dead. But we are still here. We stopped them, BC.
"They lost a lot of ships, wasted a lot of lives on their side. Some of them got away, limped off, but they accomplished nothing. Nothing has changed. Except there's a lot of people dead who weren't before. All of this for nothing. It's so fucking pointless, BC. Nothing's changed!" Edwards can't help but get worked up.
BC looks down at the desk screen, flips to the item before the piece on the new pope. It's an updated doc on the confirmed dead. Swan is on the list. The Cardinal, too.
"Nothing? Everything's changed, Marc." BC finds himself growing angry. "Aside from you, Marc, most of the people I know are now dead. This makes it a personal war for me, now. I feel like they're waging war on me. They killed all these people I cared about and it got them nothing."
It was never personal before. Just my job.
Who do I work for now?
"Tell you what, Marc. I'm going to give them something for their trouble, for all the trouble they brought down on us. I don't know what or how yet, or where, when, any of that, but they've made me their enemy! It's never felt this personal to me before. When I figure out what I'm going to do, you'll be the first to know..."
The doorbell interrupts BC. It rings again quickly. Before Edwards can answer it, the door whips open. Daniel McEntyre bursts in.
"Marc, this has..." he starts to say. He stops in his tracks when he sees BC sitting behind the desk where he expected to see Edwards. His head whips back and forth as he looks for Edwards. When he spots him he demands, pointing at BC, "What is he doing here?!"
BC is up from behind the desk before his mind knows his body is moving. All his anger at the UIN is concentrating in his right fist as he pulls it back.
Fuck it.
BC lets a solid right fly. His fist connects flat with McEntyre's jaw. McEntyre's head snaps back. McEntyre stumbles, falls into the closing door, then slides to the floor holding his jaw. BC shakes his hand.
Damn. That felt good.
May have broken something.
"Sorry, Marc," BC apologizes. He steps over McEntyre and into the doorway, then turns to look down at his victim.
"Don't even think of pressing any charges," BC tells McEntyre, "or I'll bring up your tackle you laid on me back on the day you had your wife killed. Oh wait, no, that's right, I assssassssinated her, right? Fuck you." BC turns back, walks out the door and down the corridor.
I have no idea where I'm going. There's no place left to go to. I'd like to get some air. But what am I gonna do, go out for a walk? That doesn't work here. The only thing close was the dome, and that's gone now, too.
The air tastes stale. Recyclers aren't what they used to be, must have been hit. The main dome was a big part of the atmosphere system, come to think of it. Maybe we're running on old backups.
BC stops walking when he reaches an emergency airlock door. All the door panels are lit up bright red. There's no air on the other side. BC can see through the doors ahead to a wreck of a corridor. The corridor extends a short way ahead, then is simply flattened down and melted into spiky modern art.
But it's not art. Not some sculptor's nightmare made manifest. This used to be the way through the main dome to the Vatican mission.
What's that?
BC hears footsteps behind him, turns to see Edwards walking his way.
"Didya really have to do that? I don't have enough problems, you gotta make me some new ones?" Edwards is shaking his head, trying to look angry at BC but still grinning around the edges.
"Sorry, man, I see that fuck, I see the UIN. I just lost it. He was in striking distance. The first UIN thing to come within my striking distance. So I struck."
"Fine. Did that get it out of your system?"
"Not really," BC answers honestly.
"Too bad. Don't do it again."
"What, to him? Why not? Who says?"
"I says."
"Why not?"
"I've got no time to deal with it and the trouble it will cause!" Edwards gets serious with BC. "I've gotta rebuild this place, and I've got no time for your petty squabbling with McEntyre. I need him, believe it or not!" Edwards explains to BC. "He's respected by those who don't respect me. I have to work with him. And I need your help, too, so I can't have you two openly at each other's throats." Edwards smiles again. "So I hope you enjoyed that. Because THAT was it. You got me?"
BC nods.
"You gotta rebuild, too, BC! Who else is going to rebuild the Vatican Mission? Who else is left?"
"What? Me?"
"You should put your energy into rebuilding the Vatican Mission," he tells BC.
BC sees Edwards has thought this through.
It seems Mr. Edwards has decided I need a purpose. Maybe he's right.
"You are the only one left! Just start doing it, I'll back you up. Tell the new guy Pope Peter had left you with instructions to do it. You're now the ranking Vatican NcC official on the Moon, so you need to rebuild that mission. Take charge!"
Edwards tries to fire him up.
It's not working, but BC decides to play along.
"I like the way you think, Marc. You are a crazy optimist, I like that."
"And you're just crazy, right? Help me rebuild the Moon, BC! It's something to work on, to care about, something to do to defy those who'd tear us down. Do it for everyone who's gone now. Do it for yourself, to give yourself something to do, some purpose, something to focus on as you rebuild yourself."
"Man, that was deep. You practicing a speech or something?" BC laughs.
Edwards looks down for a second, then back at BC with a hint of a grin. "I have been working on a little something. So, will you do it?"
"Do what, stop hitting McEntyre or help you rebuild?"
"How about both? They're the same thing, really, right? Will you?"
BC sighs. He extends a hand to Edwards, who grabs it in a handshake as BC says, "Yeah. I'm with you."
###
A Note From The Author: Mike Luoma here – thanks for reading my VATICAN ASSASSIN! My first novel, originally released in 2005, and just the start of BC's adventures. They continue in VATICAN AMBASSADOR, as BC helps pick up the pieces on Lunar Prime after the attacks... and waits to hear from the OPO – if it still exists! Want to read it now? CLICK HERE to get VATICAN AMBASSADOR for only $4.99 – or CLICK HERE and get the OMNIBUS – all three books - the entire VATICAN ASSASSIN Trilogy – VATICAN ASSASSIN – VATICAN AMBASSADOR and VATICAN ABDICATOR – under one cover for just $6.99! Thanks for reading!
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About the Author: Mike Luoma writes, designs and publishes science fiction novels and comic books, hosts the weekly Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast, narrates audiobooks and is the Music Director and midday disc jockey for The Point radio network in Vermont. Alibi Jones and the Sunrise of Hur is his latest science fiction adventure novel. His comics include Panthea Obscura, Good Samaritan, Souverain, Red Hot! and The Adventures of Alibi Jones.
Get books and details at https://glowinthedarkradio.com/
More Books By Mike Luoma:
The Adventures of Alibi Jones:
Alibi Jones
Alibi Jones: Vacation
Alibi Jones and The Sunrise of Hur
Alibi Jones and The Time War of The Devrizium
Souverain: The Kid
Connect with me online:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikeluoma
Facebook: https://facebook.com/mikeluoma
Websites: https://mikeluoma.com
https://glowinthedarkradio.com
https://vaticanassassin.com
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